Rating: 
Summary: Hardly your normal computer architecture treatise.
Review: Prof. Dave Patterson at UC Berkeley has commented that
this book is what would probably happen if Scott Adams
(of "Dilbert" fame) wrote a book on computer architecture.
I'm constitutionally incapable of taking anything too
seriously for too long.
But while quite digestable (I'm told by readers), it's
not trivial. You may be interested to know that
Microsoft's Windows NT cluster project took its name,
"Wolfpack," from this book's cover illustration. It's
sold quite well to them, as well as to cluster
practitioners at Intel, IBM, Novell, Digital, and
elsewhere. And at a conference, I had a UCLA student thank
me on behalf of his entire class for writing it, saying it
practical, readable, and kept a sense of humour about the
whole thing.
Rating: 
Summary: Learn about clusters without falling asleep
Review: About a month ago I started work on a project running on a small cluster and involving the Oracle 8 Parallel Server at a low level (writing the Distributed Lock Manager support libraries for a certain OS). At this point, I'd never used (or even seen!) a clustered system, and I knew nothing about clusters at all. Then a colleague loaned me the first edition of Dr Pfister's book.
Unwilling to be over-eager to learn anything out of 'paid' time, I opened the book with some trepidation, expecting to find the usual dessicated prose and tons of TLAs. What a pleasant surprise! From the 'legal stuff' at the front of the book ('a kind of garlic'), right through to the bibliography ('I found this paper almost unreadable'), the author understands the need of the reader to remain conscious through what is potentially the dullest of subjects and emerge, slightly surprised ('Did I actually enjoy that?') at the other end. Thousands of college lecturers have a lot to learn from this man!
The second edition of the book is more a re-write than an update, and just as packed with anecdotes, humour (right down to pseudo-Paul Simon lyrics - people were hanged for less in the Wild West), and at the same time, probably the most thorough explanations of the why/how/when/wheres of clustering you will find in any book. As the quote on the back says 'This book is what would happen if Scott Adams wrote a book on parallel computers'...Full marks!
Rating:
Summary: This is the Clustering Bible
Review: As other reviewers have said, this is an excellent book and is a *must have* for anyone exploring practically any aspect of cluster computing. Even beyond the quality of the information conveyed, the writing style is wonderful and the author makes an otherwise abstract and cumbersome topic quite readable and quite approachable. This book is regarded as the Clustering Bible worldwide, and I've seen copies placed prominently in the bookshelves of individuals in Beijing, Tokyo, Paris, and the US. Microsoft's own Cluster Server was codenamed 'Wolfpack', as an honerable reference to the cover art of this specific book.
Aaron McKee
Clustering Products Manager
TurboLinux Inc.
Rating:
Summary: This is the Clustering Bible
Review: As other reviewers have said, this is an excellent book and is a *must have* for anyone exploring practically any aspect of cluster computing. Even beyond the quality of the information conveyed, the writing style is wonderful and the author makes an otherwise abstract and cumbersome topic quite readable and quite approachable. This book is regarded as the Clustering Bible worldwide, and I've seen copies placed prominently in the bookshelves of individuals in Beijing, Tokyo, Paris, and the US. Microsoft's own Cluster Server was codenamed 'Wolfpack', as an honerable reference to the cover art of this specific book.
Aaron McKee
Clustering Products Manager
TurboLinux Inc.
Rating:
Summary: The best introduction to high perf cluster computing
Review: In a subject which is probably considered dull Pfeister has written a book which is actually entertaining as well as informative.If you are new to high perforamnce computing this book will begin from the basics and teach you all the way.If you are a pro you still will find it a great refernce material worth a read.You are bound to find something new in it.
Rating:
Summary: A great book - A new standard for technical writing!
Review: Mr. Pfister with humor and clarity has explained scalability. His book is insightful, clear and an excellent introduction to the benefits of clustering (that is working together) both in terms of hardware and software. His revision updates the industry and keeps pace with one of the fastest moving arenas of computing.
Rating:
Summary: An exemplar of how to write a readable technical book
Review: Other reviewers, both publishers and individuals, have already said many good things about this book. Believe them all. There's plenty of meat for the greying professional yet it's accessible (and enjoyable) to the relative neophyte.
The author has been compared to Scott Adams. While his style is eminently readable, I think this may not entirely do it justice: I'd be more inclined to liken his ability to present detailed concepts in an approachable manner to that of Richard Feynman - though as a non-neophyte with an intense interest in the subject matter my evaluation may be biased. If you have an interest in high-performance, high-availability processing and/or SANs (whether you call them 'storage area networks' or 'system area networks'), there may well be no better single source of information. If you simply have an interest in computers in general, you could just read it for fun.
Rating:
Summary: Concise, timely and humorous description of OS technology
Review: The revision, like the Original is fresh and engaging - offering complex technical concepts in bite sized, palatable parcels. Mr. Pfister has done something wonderful for the computer industry with this book. The term clustering has been miss used and miss understood, often with drastic consquences, since Digtal released VMS V4.0 (and within clustering) and UNIX vendors tried to copy it. Greg Pfister has done a level set, defining terms and concepts and than comparing each implementation's strengths and weaknesses with a unique blend of clarity and humor. I recommend this book for 3 camps: I consider it classic example of how to write a technical book, it is helpful for anyone wanting to develop or exploit reliable systems and it is a must read for folks considering or already involved with NT server Enterprise Edition.
Rating:
Summary: good technical overview of systems architectures
Review: This book provides a terrific introduction to the hardware, software, and systems architecture of parallel computing, candidly discussing the issues and trade-offs in various approaches. The emphasis is on clusters, but there is lots of information on the whole continuum from single processor machines to SMPs to clusters to distributed computing. Pfister will leave you with a better understanding of things like how SMP machines keep processor caches coherent, what the differences are between SMP, NUMA, and distributed computing, how various cluster products work, real world cluster issues (like system administration), programming models used in parallel computing, and why programming code that runs efficently on these architectures is usually the hard part. The book is somewhat dated - nothing about Beowolf for example - but the concepts remain valid. Many of the issues are illustrated with reference to mainframe clusters, especially IBM's 390 sysplex, which I found particularly interesting since I don't have much experience with these systems. The style is highly readable and informal, but not insultingly non-technical. The book is loaded with opinion and insights - it is not a dry textbook of issues related to clustering. Highly recommended for anyone in the business of creating information systems that need to run fast.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent work only for the layman though.
Review: Well for a start its extermly important to decide WHY you want this book. Just as a recreational and informative reading OR something more instructional. If you want a piece of work that after reading it you could knowlegbely coverse about clusters then this is the book for you. It gives you just enough information to introduce you to clusters and their internals,and nothing more. In other words it wont teach you how to say ...administer,build or troubleshoot one. This is clearly explained at the preface of the book where the author explains this book is a little more than a work presented at IBM in the early of days clusters where nobody could really agree on even the theorotical bits just to give an outline of "what a cluster is?". Again its very theorotical,read it just as a genegral introduction. Secondly a lot of people have appreciated the humor thrown in here and there however there is a limit to everything and if you are looking for solid hardcore facts and info you will find sections that might frustrate you at some points. If you are looking for a SERIOUS book on clustersing then have a look at the two volume works by Rajikumar Buyya (both avilable at amazon.com). I still give it 5 stars for being the right book for the right audience though.
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